Growing, Breaking, Healing, Teaching
by kiragecko
Summary: The car pulling into the driveway was of little interest to Logan. It wasn’t until a faint scent reached him that the car became important. She was in it. He hadn’t seen or spoken to her in months and now she was here.


Come Logan gets all the good stories? I mean, I try to write a story, any story, but it always has him in it. Did Marvel give him all the great backstory or do I just have a fixation?

Growing, Breaking, Healing, Teaching

by kiragecko

The car pulling into the driveway was of little interest to Logan. There was always a student coming to or leaving the Xavier Institute. It wasn't until a faint scent reached him that the car became important. She was in it. He hadn't seen or spoken to her in months and now she was here.

He leapt up and charged through the forest towards the front of the mansion. She hadn't gotten out of the car yet and the other X-Men were still assembling, far more interested then he had been by the surprise vehicle. He raced around the corner of the mansion and slowed as he got a clearer scent. There was something very wrong. She still hadn't opened the door as he approached it, trying to figure out what was the matter. There was someone else in the vehicle, a young man, who was very apprehensive. He was whispering to her, trying to find out what he should do. She jerked away from him when she saw Logan and threw the door open. Logan had his arms around her before she was fully standing.

"It's okay, Jubes, it's okay."

She was sobbing, holding on to him for dear life. He rocked her softly, not letting go. For a while they just stood there, hugging each other, while the onlookers grew more curious and the man in the car looked tired and drained. Finally, Jubilee loosened her grip, straightened a little, and seemed to steel herself for some oncoming torture. Logan spoke softly.

"It's a beautiful day, we don't have to go inside yet."

She collapsed into tears again. He steered her gently, never letting go of her.

"We're gonna go sit by the pond, you guys take him inside and introduce yourselves."

Then the two of them were gone.

The X-Men turned to the young man, ready to question him within an inch of his life, but he was already shaking his head.

"Jubilee's gotta talk to you, not me. I'm just here to carry her luggage."

To illustrate he headed to the trunk of his car. Scott and Bobby went to help him and refrained from questioning him, but he still spent the next twenty minutes under intense scrutinization. They didn't come up with much. His name was Eric Zhou, he was of Asian descent, he had spent most of his life in California, and he was very worried about Jubilee, though he seemed grateful she was with Logan. He seemed uncomfortable when they asked if he wanted to stay but accepted with haste when Scott said he was welcome. Altogether he seemed a nice enough person with a lot on his mind. This did nothing to dispel anyone's curiosity.

Logan had brought her to a shaded spot on the pond's edge and had soothed away all her half-hearted sorrys. He still had his arm around her, tightly, as they watched the water. It was silent. She would calm down and then decide to talk which would upset her again. He kept telling her it wasn't necessary right now, just to relax, enjoy the silence, and she would curl up against him and cry softly. His heart was braking for his little girl but he kept a soft smile on his face and a gentle, happy tone to his voice. It didn't matter right now, nothing mattered, talking could wait until later.

He wasn't sure how she ended on his lap but there she was, curled against his chest again, while he stroked her hair. It had gotten longer since he had last seen her. The shadows were also getting longer and he didn't think she was ready to go in. He sent a quick request to Emma, telepathically of course, and then spoke lightly to Jubilee.

"Ya wanna spend the night out here, under the stars? It's gonna be beautiful."

She managed a grateful smile and slipped back beside him again. They sat quietly until Kitty slipped up with a tray of hot food, blankets, and two sleeping bags and pillows. She left as quickly as she had come, giving Jubilee nothing more then a friendly smile. Logan had been quite firm that there would be no questions, or even small talk.

Jubilee seemed better while they were eating. They talked a bit about light stuff - TV, the area around them, the difference in weather between here and California. The simple conversation with this girl almost brought tears to Logan's eyes in a way that her crying before hadn't. This was the real Jubilee, but it seemed so fragile. There were tears at the edges of her eyes even now, and she was subdued.

Curled up together in a blanket they watched the sunset. Bits of it could be seen through the trees - a patch of pink almost touching the ground, a few spots of red higher up, and shades of purple and blue fading together and into the rest of the sky above the tree tops. It became cooler and darker, and Jubilee's head began to droop. She slipped, uncontesting, into her sleeping bag and Logan lay down in the other beside her. They would talk in the morning, he decided. She looked like she needed a good sleep.

He soon found out why. He had barely drifted off before she bolted upright, gasping for breath, with a mixture of screams and cries coming from her lips. He jerked awake so fast he almost gutted her. Then he began the process of calming her down all over again. He tried to sound soothing and positive and not to think about the fact he wasn't going to get much sleep. He was pretty sure this was going to become the pattern for the night.

He decided not to sleep at all. He wouldn't be able to stay calm and soothing if she kept waking him up, he'd probably get upset, maybe even yell at her. Jubes didn't need that and he'd feel guilty then. Things didn't work well when both sides felt guilty.

So he sat quietly in the dark, brooding over his sweet little girl, and smiled softly when she woke, laughed lightly when she begged forgiveness, rocked her back to sleep again, and thought about the past. Around two o'clock she stopped trying to sleep.

"I'm ready to talk Wolvie, I really am. I'm not going to sleep anyways, please can I talk?"

"If ya wanna, darlin'."

And she talked. She talked of wlking home... and being in the hospital. Of some guys following her... and how Eric had refused to leave her bedside. She started to cry and talked about how much it hurt and how she couldn't stop them and all the things they had said and how she couldn't stop them and she was an X-Man and should have been able to and how she had been scared and she cried some more and somehow she told him what they had done. And he couldn't go and kill them slowly and painfully because he had to hold her while she sobbed and sobbed, even after there were no tears left.

Morning broke and Logan realized she was asleep on his lap. He didn't remember when that had happened. The fight between his blood rage and his sanity had taken up most of his attention. Sanity had won for now.

It was time to go inside. Soon the rest of the mansion would wake and they'd want to know what was going on. He had to get Jubilee somewhere safe before they started snooping about. Maybe with that Chinese guy. Then he'd go tell everyone else. Take a walk, destroy some stuff. Be back by the time she woke up. Would it be better if he took her away or she stayed with her nosey, interfering family? If he kept everyone away or let them smother her with love?

As he carried her towards the mansion he finally started to cry, softly, just like everything else he'd done in the last night. They'd hurt his little girl.

Revenge, hate, exhaustion, and worries all became meaningless in the face of that idea.

They'd hurt his little girl.

His little girl was hurt.


End file.
